Setting up .NET tracing on z/OS

Use the Instana Tracing SDK to create custom spans and traces.

To enable tracing by using the Instana SDK, complete the following steps:

1. Add the Instana.Tracing.Core.Sdk NuGet package to your project.

2. Create custom spans in your application code:

   using Instana.Tracing.Sdk.Spans;
   
   // Create an entry span for incoming requests
   using (var span = CustomSpan.Create(SpanType.ENTRY, "operation-name"))
   {
       span.SetServiceName("your-service-name");
       span.SetEndpointName("endpoint-name");
       span.SetData("custom.key", "custom-value");
   
       // Your application logic here
   }
   
   // Create an intermediate span for internal operations
   using (var span = CustomSpan.Create(SpanType.INTERMEDIATE, "internal-operation"))
   {
       span.SetServiceName("your-service-name");
       span.SetEndpointName("operation-name");
   
       // Your internal logic here
   }

3. Optional: Configure the Instana tracer in your application startup code (typically in Program.cs) to set default service and endpoint names that are displayed in traces:

   using Instana.Tracing.Sdk;
   
   // Configure Instana Tracer
   TracerConfiguration.ServiceName = "your-service-name";
   TracerConfiguration.EndpointName = "your-endpoint-name";

4. Deploy and start the application. Generate traffic to the application endpoints.

5. Verify that traces are being collected:

   1. Go to Applications > Services in the Instana UI.
   2. Locate the service name to view its traces and metrics.

For more information about Instana .NET Core Tracing SDK, see .NET or .NET Core Tracing SDK.

Use the OpenTelemetry SDK with OTLP exporter to send traces to Instana.

Before you use the OpenTelemetry SDK, configure the Instana agent to accept OpenTelemetry data by enabling the following configuration in the agent configuration file <agent-root-path>/agent/etc/instana/configuration.yaml:

# Enable OpenTelemetry
com.instana.plugin.opentelemetry:
  grpc:
    enabled: true
  http:
    enabled: true

# Enable .NET Core AutoTracing
com.instana.plugin.netcore:
  tracing:
    enabled: true

To enable tracing by using the OpenTelemetry SDK, complete the following steps:

1. Add the required OpenTelemetry NuGet packages to your project:

   • OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting
   • OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol
   • OpenTelemetry.Exporter.Console (if console-based logging is required)
   • OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.AspNetCore (for ASP.NET Core web applications)
   • OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.Http (for HTTP client instrumentation)

2. Configure OpenTelemetry in your application startup code (typically in Program.cs):

   using OpenTelemetry.Resources;
   using OpenTelemetry.Trace;
   
   var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
   
   // Configure OpenTelemetry
   builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
       .ConfigureResource(resource =>
       {
           resource.AddService(
               serviceName: "your-service-name",
               serviceVersion: "1.0.0",
               serviceInstanceId: Environment.ProcessId.ToString());
       })
       .WithTracing(tracing =>
       {
           tracing
               .AddSource("your-service-name")
               .AddAspNetCoreInstrumentation()
               .AddHttpClientInstrumentation()
               .AddOtlpExporter(options =>
               {
                   // Configure OTLP endpoint to point to Instana Agent
                   options.Endpoint = new Uri("http://localhost:4317");
               });
       });

3. Create custom spans by using OpenTelemetry ActivitySource:

   using System.Diagnostics;
   
   // Create an ActivitySource
   private static readonly ActivitySource ActivitySource = new ActivitySource("your-service-name", "1.0.0");
   
   // Create custom spans
   using (var activity = ActivitySource.StartActivity("operation-name"))
   {
       activity?.SetTag("custom.key", "custom-value");
       activity?.SetTag("operation.type", "business-logic");
   
       // Your application logic here
   
       activity?.AddEvent(new ActivityEvent("Operation completed"));
   }

4. Deploy and start the application. Generate traffic to the application endpoints.

5. Verify that traces are being collected:

   1. Go to Applications > Services in the Instana UI.
   2. Locate the service name to view its traces and metrics.